Young Bavarian documentary filmmakers whose films are shown at the festival: The FFF-Förderpreis Dokumentarfilm (Documentary Film Talent Award), sponsored by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, honours local up-and-coming directors at DOK.fest München. The prize is awarded across all series and is endowed with 5,000 euros.
Films by up-and-coming directors that were produced in Bavaria can be nominated. The directors should live in Bavaria, be born in Bavaria or have studied in Bavaria. The criterion for selection is that the director has realised up to one first or second feature film (54 minutes or more). There is no longer an age limit (previously no older than 40 years). Only feature-length films can be nominated for the FFF Talent Award.

The Nominees

WHERE WE USED TO SLEEP
Germany 2024, Matthäus Wörle, 82 min.

To collect the waste water from a megalomaniac copper mine, a dam was built high up in the Romanian mountains and an entire village flooded. Only the spire of the church still sticks out of the toxic mud. For over 40 years, however, Valeria has held on to her clod of earth on her small farm on the hillside, just a few metres from the lake. How long can that last? A true cinema experience.

JENSEITS VON SCHULD
Germany 2024, Katharina Köster, Katrin Nemec, 79 min.

The media call their son the ‘patient murderer’, he committed countless offences and was given a life sentence: life goes on for his parents Ulla and Didi Högel, but nothing is as it used to be. They have to accept the bitter truth, find out how to cope with everyday life and reposition themselves in their dealings with their child. An impressive, closely observed film about parenthood and love.

HEUTE IST DAS GESTERN VON MORGEN
Germany 2024, Jonas Neumann, 82 min.

In times of increasing right-wing extremist hate speech, remembering the Holocaust is more important than ever. But 80 years after the liberation from the concentration camps, only a few witnesses are still alive. The daily work at the Dachau concentration camp memorial is observed in calm, contemplative images. There is a big and anxious question in the room: What can effective remembrance work look like in the future?

RESTORATION
Germany 2023, Gudrun Gruber, 72 min.

Trauma research has gained visibility in recent years. But what if the trauma is right in front of you? For Sabrina's family, her restlessness, panic and seizures were only bearable because Sabrina did one thing: she never gave up on herself. A film about a courageous woman who insists on not only being defined by her past, but determining her own future.

ECHOES FROM BORDERLAND
Germany 2023, Lara Milena Brose, 70 min.

Bosnian Ferida lives within sight of the EU's external border. She witnesses the refugees' desperate attempts to reach the EU every day and her memories of violence and war come flooding back. Nahid, 15 years old and on the run from the Taliban, is stranded right here. Ferida's stories and Nahid's voicemails are fading echoes that intertwine in this hypnotic narrative.


EXILE NEVER ENDS
Germany 2024, Bahar Bektas, 100 min.

‘The longing for your own homeland never ends,’ says filmmaker Bahar Bektaş. Her brother is in prison in Germany. He is due to be deported and is waiting for the early transfer to Turkey that he has applied for. And because there seems to be no end to the waiting, Bahar turns the camera on her Alevi-Kurdish family and explores the question of the effects of being uprooted.

SHAHID
Germany 2024, Narges Kalhor, 84 min.

Nomadic cinema of fabulous stories: When the surname ‘Shahid’ means martyr, contains generations of political trauma and seems to prevent a future. Is it bureaucratic or internal hurdles, what is one's own, what is the other? SHAHID is an artfully interwoven film about post-migrant family history and about the freedom to transcend all genre boundaries in filmmaking.

Jury of the FFF Documentary Film Talent Award 2024

In 2024, the jury will be composed of Marion Czarny, Hanns-Georg Rodek and Mette Hoffmann Meyer.

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony of the FFF Talent Award Documentary Film will take place within the award ceremony of the main prizes of the 39th DOK.fest München:
Saturday, 11 May 2024, 7.30 pm, Amerikahaus

• To the winning film